David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.

21 March 2012

We listened to Parliament today, to the Maiden Speech of the newly appointed senator Bob Carr.

One of our senior staff has been an on-and-off listener to federal Parliament since 1965. He recalls hearing Barry Jones' Maiden Speech in 1977; it has stayed with him that Barry quoted this from John Donne :

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."

That's from Donne's Mediation XVII (Devotions upon Emergent Occasions). Less well known is what directly follows it :

"Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as though we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbours. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did, for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current money, his treasure will not defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of another's danger I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security."

. . . .

The newly sworn senator opened with deprecating good humour.

Senator BOB CARR (New South Wales—Minister for Foreign Affairs) (17:00): Mr President, I am advised by the Parliamentary Library that I am Senator number 548. All those senators, of course, are household names, their likenesses hanging like relics on the walls of a thousand schools, their names tripping to the tongue of a grateful nation and their public service celebrated in every corner of Australia. But you might suspect I jest!

Just as our staff member recalls the 1977 broadcast of Barry Jones' maiden speech (such an antiquaint expression), Carr referred to a similar experience of his own:

A friend of mine, John Wheeldon, served in this Senate - the late John Wheeldon, who represented Western Australia in this Senate. I remember listening to the radio as a student and hearing his maiden speech in the Senate in 1965 when he was opposing waterfront legislation introduced by the Menzies government.

In the guts of his address, deadly serious, he said :

"Everything I have looked at in all those years has strengthened my belief that this is the truth."

If you're interested to know what Bob Carr was referring to, read the Hansard transcript of his speech here.

For the standards so uncompromisingly demonstrated by Helen, for those written about and those merely glimpsed in Gabriella Coslovich's 'Brack to the future: a queen gone to pieces is artist's legacy'(THE AGE, 15 March 2012 : click here to read the article) this 21 pencil salute :

11 March 2012

Following on from yesterday's post, on the 53rd anniversary of the Chinese invasion of Tibet, here's a postcard from 2001 that features a freely writ text by Ben. He's a pinned-up postcard favorite at the office of bLOGOS/HA HA

BEIJING: Wu Zegang shifted uncomfortably in his seat, avoided eye contact with the reporters surrounding him and refused to answer any questions.

After a few minutes, the heat on the deputy Communist Party secretary and governor of Sichuan's Aba prefecture - the epicentre of Tibetan unrest and self-immolations - was too much. He stood up, left his desk and retired to the back of the room, before he was eventually shepherded through a rear exit and into a lift by minders, while dozens of journalists and camera crew jostled to get close.

"Will you adjust any of your Tibetan area policies?" one local reporter piped up one final time as Mr Wu disappeared from view.

The rare scenes of media spotlight and pressure - made possible by the relatively unbridled media access at China's annual National People's Congress - highlights the intense interest and awareness among Chinese media of the red-button issue, despite government-enforced restrained lines of reporting.

There were three more self-immolations in Aba this week, including a mother-of-four and two teenagers, bringing the toll to at least 26 in the past year, with more than half of those setting themselves alight in the past three months alone. Most are protesting against what they say are restrictions on their religious freedom, amid an unprecedented military crackdown.

Earlier, the Sichuan press conference, on the sidelines of the congress, had meandered along with polite questions from local media regarding disaster management, the economy and the environment, before a foreign reporter raised the issue of Tibetan self-immolations.

Called on by provincial party chief Liu Qibao to respond, Mr Wu forcefully delivered a prepared statement, denying any fault from the Sichuan government and putting the blame on an orchestrated effort from overseas "separatist groups" plotting Tibetan independence.

"This all proves a motivated and political ploy by overseas separatist interests," Mr Wu said.

"The 14th Dalai Lama not only does not discourage this behaviour, but actively supports this separatist, anti-social action."

Mr Liu added "oppression on ethnic minorities and their religion does not exist" in Sichuan. But Mr Wu may consider himself unlucky to have felt most of the heat at such a public forum. Shi Jun - Aba prefecture's former head before being promoted to deputy governor of Sichuan - is considered the mastermind of Sichuan's hardline Tibetan policies. He has not attended this year's congress.

Three Tibetans, a 32-yr-old widowed mother of four and two teenagers, died of self-immolation in separate incidents as China convened its annual sessions of National People's Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

On 5 March 2012, the day the fifth session of 11th NPC opened, 18-yr-old Dorjee set himself on fire at around 6.30 pm (Tibet Time) near a government office in Cha (Chinese: Jia) Township, Ngaba (Chinese: Aba) County, Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. Dorjee's flaming body was seen walking towards the office building as he shouted protest slogans against the Chinese government, according to sources. He died on the spot. Security officers later took away the body despite opposition from the local Tibetans.

On 4 March 2012, on the eve of the NPC session, a 32-yr-old widowed mother of four died after setting herself alight at around 6.30 am (Tibet Time) in front of a police station outside the main gate of Kirti Monastery. Rinchen, whose youngest child is a few-month-old baby and the eldest is 13, demanded the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the restoration of freedom in Tibet. Monks took possession of her burnt body and took it inside the monastery.

On 3 March 2012, the day the Fifth Session of CPPCC opened, a 19-yr-old Tibetan student self-immolated at a vegetable market in Machu (Chinese: Maqu) town, Kanlho (Chinese: Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture) in Gansu Province. Sources say Tsering Kyi was stoned by Chinese vendors while still in flames and almost provoked a massive clash between the Tibetans and the Chinese stone-throwers. According to sources, the local police have refused to release Tsering's body to her family unless the family agrees that Tsering's self-immolation death was motivated by personal problems rather than political grievances. Xinhua, China's state-owned news agency on 7 March echoed the same contention that Tsering's death was caused by 'depression'.

To date, continued repression and absence of any recourse to justice have driven 26 Tibetans to self-immolate in protests in Tibet. It is appalling that the Chinese government has consistently reacted with force and violence to stop the self-immolations. Treating it, in a myopic way, as just a law and order issue, the Chinese government has sent security officers particularly the People’s Armed Police (PAP) and Public Security Bureau (PSB) to crush the protests, be it firing unarmed protesters or kicking and beating bodies in flames with spiked batons.

The fact that not a single local official was sent to hear the grievances of the Tibetan self-immolators and other protesters has deeply hurt Tibetan sentiments and corroded the last remaining faith in the government, if any.

08 March 2012

Tibetan Nuns and Monks, along with Tibetan lay women and men have for the last several years been protesting to their personal limit against the increasing Chinese Government repression of Tibet's cultural and religious freedom.

Tenzin Wangmo, from a list of Tibetans who have self-immolated since February 2009 :

Tenzin Wangmo, 20, nun, Ngaba17 October 2011. Died at the scene.

"20-year-old Tenzin Wangmo, a nun at Dechen Chokorling near Ngaba town, called for religious freedom in Tibet and the return on the Dalai Lama as she set herself on fire outside of the nunnery. She died at the scene after less than 10 minutes. Sources have reported militarization intensified at Dechen Chokorling nunnery and the surrounding areas. She is the first woman to self-immolate in the history of Tibet."

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LOGOS/HA HA

07 March 2012

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Le Règne de la Langue

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Le Pont de Pierre

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The Flood

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click image to enlarge

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LOGOS/HA HA

06 March 2012

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rain keeps falling

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !rivers keep rising

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Ce Bonjour en Passant

☂

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LOGOS/HA HA

04 March 2012

Coinciding with the publication of our previous post ( Sounds of Weather : here ) a massive Rainbow Serpent began its slow diagonal movement across Australia, bringing record rains (... since 1886) and floods to many regions. In New South Wales alone, three quarters of that State is now affected by flooding.

The darker blues and reds of the rainfall map below show the diagonal impact across the continent over the previous 7 days.

Here, out the back behind this office, the frogs in the dams are drumming-up a bok bok frenzy that we usually only hear once a year, in early summer.

One other result of that previous post is the BLACK BATS tell us they've been receiving a deluge of their own, of skywalker postcards from their weather-watching umbratecture colleagues around the globe.